Employees weren't tying fractured tracks with cloth, was just a marker: Railway on viral video

Mumbai: The Central Railway late on Tuesday clarified after a video of employees tying a fractured piece of track with cloth went viral. The cloth was just used as a marker, the Railway authority said.

The video, featuring railway employees, has been doing rounds on social media in the wake of heavy rains that hit parts of Maharashtra on Tuesday. The video claimed that a piece of cloth was used to tie up the fractured part.

A rail fracture was reported between the suburban Govandi and Mankhurd stations on the Harbour Line at 6.32 pm. It was repaired within half an hour.

Clarifying the matter, Railway officials said that the cloth only marked the point of fracture, and it was not used to bridge the crack.

"The fish plate was intact....Since paint does not stick in the rain, the cloth was put as marking instead of paint....Safety was not compromised at all," a statement by the Central Railway said.

Samir Jhaveri, an RTI and passenger rights activist, however, demanded an inquiry by the Commissioner of Railway Safety into the matter.

Services on all three lines of the suburban railway in Mumbai - Western, Central and Harbour - were severely hit by torrential rains on Tuesday.

(With inputs from PTI)